Duel of the Fates: Barrier Break
by Moviemanev
Summary: Read the epic tale of Cloud and Sephiroth's world hopping duels! Two years after Advent Children, Cloud finds himself in Middle Earth where he.... WAIT, WHAT? Middle Earth? What's going on? Read to find out!
1. Two Generals

The clean cut black leather boots stood apart from all the bare footed or sandaled orks that were in the ranks or the army of Mordor. Then again, so did the long white hair and the cleanly forged sword. Sephiroth didn't mind, he had been around a lot uglier things than a couple million orks. He was at the head leading the armies on behalf of his new partner for the time being: Sauron. The Witch King strode beside him as the grew continually closer to Minus Terith, where the final battle would take place. And when the time came for the battle cry to be yelled, all Sephiroth had to do was simply point, and the armies of Mordor screamed and ran toward the city gates.

The cloth shirt, and the one piece of armor stood apart from the shiny suits of metal worn by all in the armies of Gondor and Rohan. Then again, so did the helmetless hair and the sword that was as big as three children. Cloud didn't mind, he was used to being around a bunch of military stiffs who strive for uniformity. He was appointed captain of his regiment, not because of money, but because New King liked him, and because it was right. His second in command stood beside him, in his shiny clean cut armor, ready to fire his bow once the armies of Mordor came close enough, and when the armies finally did charge Cloud drew his sword and pointed it in the direction of the advancing troops, and the arrows and catapults let fly!

But as Sephiroth stood watching the Arrows and flaming rocks come toward him,

But as Cloud stood watching the wave of evil come toward him,

He noticed something; in the center of the wave/city was a familiar face which he loathed! And from his left/right shoulder burst a black wing and he took to the air to meet his foe!

Cloud met Sephiroth in the sky causing a sonic boom when the two swords clashed, "We have to stop meeting like this" Sephiroth chuckled

"Why don't you just lay back and die!"

"I can't die!"

"We'll see!"

Cloud broke the stale mate of the two swords and flung his sword around the back of him to hit Sephiroth in the side of the face. However the one winged angel was too quick for his and blocked the enormous blade with his own.

"Meet any new girls lately Cloud?" Sephiroth said with an evil smile

"SHUTUP!" Cloud said in a rage and he brought his sword over head and slammed in down on Sephiroth's knocking the Jenova experiment to the ground in the center of the army. "Pride goes before a fall" Cloud said with a smile


	2. Battle for Middle Earth

Sephiroth made a small dent in the ground as he hit, taking five unfortunate orcs down with him. He could still see Cloud hovering above him a hundred feet in the air. Sephiroth quickly got up and ducked into the other troops around him to hide himself, he ran swiftly in between the orcs back up to where the witch king was, the Witch King was surprised when his leader came up so suddenly, "Fire all arrows upward now!" Sephiroth ordered. The witch King gathered the attention of the orcs and pointed upward. Cloud scanned the endless crowds of orcs for his arch enemy, suddenly millions of arrows shot quickly intro the air toward him, he swung his massive sword three times, breaking the arrows as they came, but there were too many, one arrow hit his leg, and another in his shoulder, Cloud shielded himself as best as he could with his sword, and fell form the sky into the orc armies bellow.

Sephiroth was confident of his victory over his former comrade, he stood smiling by the witch king watching as the orcs trampled Cloud's body. Suddenly dozens of orcs, and orc parts flew into the air. Sephiroth and the witch king gasped as a wave of orcs were hurled off their feet and into the air. Clouds Massive sword swung back and forth slicing more and more orcs in two and knocking more and more into the air. Using one hand was tiring him out since his other arm was useless due to the arrow. Sephiroth was about to charge Cloud once again, when suddenly all the orcs gasped at what was behind him. Sephiroth quickly drew his word behind him quick enough to slice though a flaming catapult rock, the two halves of the rock slid into the orc armies, crushing many underneath. Sephiroth looked toward the city and saw hundreds more flaming boulders already in mid air. Sephiroth took flight, as did the witch king on his nazgaul. Below them the flaming rocks hit swiftly and fiercely, and thousands died in horrible flaming Chaos. "He couldn't have survive that" Sephiroth said confidently, "His corpse lies with those from Mordor, we will be victorious now!"

"The reinforcements are arriving" The witch king said "Quickly, lead them into battle!"

Sephiroth bolted though the air in the direction of the river. The Witch King looked down at the burning masses of his troops, and without warning Cloud burst from the burning corpses, shooting vertically into the air and swung his massive sword at the witch King, but the witch King blocked with his equally massive mace.

"Why do you help the people of middle earth?" The witch king asked in a cold voice "They cannot give you power, or wealth once they are destroyed! Sauron will grant you anything your heart desires!"

"He can't" Cloud replied "Your wizard cannot raise the dead!"

Cloud pulled his sword loose from the mace and brought it down swiftly decapitating the nazgaul. The witch King hurtled down into his armies once again, the dead body of his nazgaul dug into the ground and he was thrown into a pile of burning corpses. Cloud slowly lowed to the ground and walked over to the witch king. The witch King got up and stared at cloud with his cold masked eyes. "No man can slay me!" The witch King cried!

"We'll see." Cloud muttered

--

Sephiroth landed beside another regiment of orcs by the river, the pirate ships were coming in with hundreds of new troops for the battle. Sephiroth and the orcs watched the boats patiently as they docked. No one came out.

"Come out and serve!" Sephiroth yelled.

Then, three men jumped out of one boat and stared at Sephiroth, a Tall one, a sort one, and a pointy eared one.

"Serve this!" the tall one said. Then without warning, Billions of ghosts and specters burst from the boats killing everything in their path. Sephiroth's eyes widened "CRUSE YOU!" He yelled as he flew up in the air to avoid the wave of supernatural destruction.

--

Cloud, was hit with another blow from the witch king's mace, knocking him on the ground, bleeding.

"No man can slay me!" The witch king screamed, hitting Cloud again.

Cloud staggered to getup but was hit again, knocking his sword from his hands.

"Do you see now Cloud?" The witch king said confidently, "Do you see how middle earth will soon be under the control on Sauron!"

"No." Cloud said with a smile "What I do see is 'Plan B' rushing this way at 100 miles per hour ready to tear you limb from limb!"

"What?" The witch king said looking up just in time to see three ghostly warriors shove there swords though his chest. "NO!" the witch King screamed "Sephiroth! You've failed us!"

--

Legolas took careful aim and shot an arrow though Sephiroth's arm! Sephiroth simply looked at Legolas and lowered to the ground.

"Careful, Legolas." Aragorn whispered "Sauron himself has brought this man to do battle, we have no Idea what he's capable of."

"No, no you don't" Sephiroth said menacingly.

He reached for his sword, and Legolas shot another arrow that hit Sephiroth right in the forehead knocking him to the ground dead. The tree stared in amazement.

"Looks like he wasn't capable of much after all!" Gimli said chuckling.

"We must hurry and help Cloud," Aragorn said "He can't lead this battle alone!" Aragorn and his comrades ran past Sephiroth's body and headed to the battle.

Suddenly, Sephiroth's hand began to pulsate with emerald energy, and a small round object could be seen glowing brightly with green light through his glove. He opened his eyes, ripped the arrow from his head, as the glow faded from his hand, he drew his sword, and shoved it though Legolas's back! Legolas screamed! Aragorn and Gimli turned around as fast as the could, Gimli threw a hatchet at Sephiroth, but it bounced off his shoulder plate. Sephiroth glided swiftly toward them and took Gimli by the hair and shoved his face into the cobblestone. Aragorn drew his sword, but Sephiroth was already too close. Aragorn Stared at his enemy, stunned at his speed and power, he could not say a word.

"I told you before, you have no Idea what I'm capable of!" Sephiroth said staring closely at the King of Gondor.

"This is impossible!" Aragorn yelled "Y-you were dead! No can survive that"

"I can't die. Not anymore." Sephiroth smiled, taking the Narsil from the King and throwing it on the ground. "Now, King…" Sephiroth said "Sauron will take your place! And I will reap the benefits"

But Before Sephiroth had a chance to finish him off, Cloud's Fist collided with his face and he was hurtled into the river.

"You okay? Cloud asked Aragorn

"I am. But m-my friends were cut down by that madman!"

"Then that's another thing we have in common."

Sephiroth Climbed out of the river, his usual gravity defying hairstyle ruined by the water.

"I'll kill you all now!" he yelled, pulling himself onto the dock, looking down at his wet clothes.

"You sure about that?" Cloud said starring at his arch enemy Sephiroth looked up and saw Cloud and Aragorn, behind them Gimli was getting up, clutching his face, but behind him was ten regiments of battle scared Middle earth Soldiers, and countless armies of the undead, all ready for instant battle. Sephiroth stepped back. A soldier threw the witch king's empty helmet to the ground in front of Sephiroth

"This battle is over. You've lost!" Cloud announced. Sephiroth knew he couldn't take on an army of the unkillable without some help, but the kind of help he needed didn't exist in this dimension! "Stand down!" Cloud yelled Sephiroth looked around, and regained his confident look,

"Foolish boy," He said smiling, "Have you forgotten? Surrender is never in option, that's SOLDIER rule number one! However, retreat is an acceptable strategy in times of crisis!"

With that, Sephiroth bolted skyward, off into the direction of Mordor.

"We've won!" Aragorn shouted and the armies of middle earth let out a loud victory cheer "My friends!" Aragorn yelled remembering Gimli and Legolas. He rushed to Legolas's side where Gimli was already kneeling.

"We can't fear in times of trouble." Cloud said "If we hurry there may still be time to get him to Gandalf. He can still be saved"

"It is always good to have hope" Aragorn said quietly. Gimli and Aragorn hoisted Legolas onto the back of a horseman's mount "Make haste! Find the white wizard and have him heal this man!" with that armies parted to make way and the rider was off. Aragorn turned back to Cloud and extended his hand in gratitude. "Come Cloud, we must celebrate the victory of Middle Earth! At least I've made one new friend today."

"Yes Cloud said "I suppose you have"

--

The Dampened Sephiroth began to dry as he stood in front of the great eye of fire.

"You have failed Sephiroth!" Sauron screeched "The King lives, and Gondor has not fallen. You have not with-held you're end of the bargain, so neither will I!"

Sephiroth, looked crossly at the eye, then smiled "You misunderstand me Sauron, I was trying to do you a favor, what he had was not a deal. What I said to you was an order!"

"YOU DARE ORDER ME!" Sauron boomed "I am the mightiest evil this world has ever known! My hate and my malice shall scorch the earth and usher in a new age of suffering!"

"You are nothing without physical form!" Sephiroth reminded him "Either you give me what I want, or I will kill you!"

"INFIDEL!" Sauron boomed shaking the foundations of his tower " I am spirit and flame. Evil made sentient. You cannot destroy me!"

"No," Sephiroth said smiling "But I can destroy this tower. Your armies... Leaving you no place to exist or rule! You know I have the power. Now give me what I want."

The eye widened at Sephiroth, and the ground shook, but in the end Sauron had no choice. Up from the tower floor came a small pillar, and on that pillar was a Ring. A Master Ring, the second Ring, to Rule them All!

"Pleasure doing business with you." Sephiroth smirked as he took the ring, and then suddenly, he was gone along with Cloud, away from Middle earth to another Dimension, again. But will this Dimensional shift return them home, or will it continue to carry them through time and space to another strange World?


	3. LOMOSE!

The skies were blue and the air was clear at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. All the usual students were making their way to their usual classes, with exception of one: Cloud Strife.

Students rushed by him in the corridors of Hogwarts, with their books in hand talking about the latest spells and gossip. Cloud could only stare at the black robes and multicolored scarf's worn by the students, and then he came to the horrible realization… he was wearing the same thing!

"Mr. Strife!" An elderly woman yelled from across the hall, "Get in here or you'll be late for class!"

Cloud just stared in bewilderment, and confusion about what was going on, but he decided to just play along for the time being. He made his way into the classroom and found a seat. Suddenly an obnoxious red haired boy stood beside him.

"You're in my seat" he said

"I'm sorry" Cloud replied "I'll move"

"Don't mind Ron" Another voice said "He can find another seat, I'm Harry Potter by the way"

Cloud turn to look at Harry, a Brown haired boy, with a scar on his head.

"How'd you get the scar?" Cloud asked

"Long story" Harry replied, "We can talk more after class

Harry met Cloud after class to find out where he was; only to discover he was now enrolled in a School for witches and wizards for children from the ages of 11 to 19!

"Uh Harry… I'm not a wizard, and I'm 21, I can't be here"

"Well for some reason your enrolled…." Harry Replied

Suddenly another obnoxious boy walked up to Harry, only this one has white hair; he stood only a little taller than Harry, and was wearing a green scarf.

"Ello, Potter!" Draco scowled "I see you've made a new friend, he's probably just another loser like Weasly! I tell you Potter when it comes to picking friends you're really lousy!"

"What do you want?" Harry said

"I'm just looking for challenge that's all! Have to keep my skills honed. So what do you say Potter? Care to duel?"

"Not Really, Draco."

"How about your friend there?"

"Sure kid," Cloud said getting up, "Lets see if you can take me."

"Oh, did you here that boys?" Draco laughed "The New man thinks he can defeat me! Well then newbie, lets see what you have then?"

Draco pulled out his wand, and bowed to Cloud, Cloud stood still.

"Oh, I see how it is!" Draco scoffed "No Respect for a true Wizard?"

Draco shouted out a spell, and red lightning shot from his wand directly at Cloud! Cloud reached for his sword, but it wasn't there! The bolt hit him square in the chest sending him into the trunk of the tree he was sitting under! Cloud searched his new clothes for anything he could find to defend himself with; as he reached into his pockets he felt something and smiled. Draco shot another bolt at Cloud, but this time he evaded.

"Let me show you my type of Magic!" Cloud yelled, taking the fire Materia out of his Pocket, activating it and incinerating Draco into a charred skeleton!

Jaws dropped all over the courtyard where they had dueled, as the remains of Draco fell limp onto the grass.

Cloud looked around at the spooked students, "What? Did I take it too far?"


	4. Hyrule

Link was exhausted! After traveling seven years into the future, going through countless dungeons and riding through the country side on his horse, he was finally approaching Hyrule Castle! As he approached the sky grew dark, and he could clearly see the draw bridge had been broken in two; he would have to go on foot from here. He made his way through the dark and desolate castle town, slashing though the many evil redeads that stood in his way. When he finally came to what once was Hyrule Castle he was shocked! The Castle had completely changed in appearance, it was now dark, broken, and hovering 100 feet above a volcano! Link though for a moment, and then remembered the ancient power of the sages, he used their power to construct a bridge of light that lead straight to the Castle's entrance.

As he made his way though the castle he fought monsters and climbed numerous stair cases until he came to the throne room of the evil man who had taken the Princess Zelda: GANNONDORF!

Link burst through the door, "Gannondorf!" He cried "Where is the princess?!"

"Right here" said a dark voice, and out of the darkness, a tied up Zelda was thrown onto the floor in front of Link.

"Princess!" Link shouted rushing to her side to untie her.

After removing her gag cloth the princess shouted "That isn't Gannondorf!"

"Then who…" Link questioned, but before he could finish, a tall man with long silver hair stepped out of the darkness, dressed in black with silver armor covering his shoulders, and a ridiculously long sword.

"I am Sephiroth" the man said, "You must be Link, I've heard so much about you."

"You're the one who has been bringing the darkness to Hyrule? Not Gannondorf?" Link inquired

Sephiroth just smirked, and then came rushing toward Link, drawing his sword. Link quickly drew the Master Sword, and metal clashed! Sephiroth drew back to swing his sword again, but Link ducked and rolled underneath his swing to come up behind him and hit him with his sword!

"You are skilled" Sephiroth said "But I'm the best"

Suddenly Sephiroth disappeared in a cloud of feathers, and appeared behind Link slashing him in the back! Link fell to his knees, and Sephiroth prepared to strike the finishing blow, but just as he was about to stab link though the heart, an annoying blue bug thing flew in front Sephiroth's face distracting him just long enough for Link to get back on his feet, and take out his trusty bow, and light arrows!

Sephiroth sliced Navi in two, just in time to see Link aiming a light arrow at his heart! Sephiroth Teleported again, appearing once more right behind Link, but when he appeared Link was no longer facing the other direction, he was staring Sephiroth right in the face! Link quickly placed a bomb in Sephiroth's shirt and ran! Sephiroth simply looked down at his shirt and stared, as Link and Zelda ran out the door, behind them they heard a loud explosion, and some ruble falling. Then the sound of falling ruble became louder, and they realized the castle must be collapsing!

They made it out just in time to see the rest of the dark castle fall into the lava pit below. Link and Zelda breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad you got out in time." Sephiroth said from behind them "I wanted the pleasure of killing you myself"

Link and Zelda just stared in fright at the evil man standing behind them, who was now holding a very dangerous object! The Fierce Deities Mask!

"I bought this off of a strange man in a purple suit" Sephiroth said raising the mask to his face "I wonder what will happen if I put it on…"

Link got up, took Zelda by the hand, and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction!

When the mask touched his flesh, power surged through every inch of Sephiroth, six glorious white wings sprung from his lower body, and one large black wing shot from his shoulder, and raising his hand to the sky he called a large rock, the size of a moon, with two burning red eyes, and an angry mouth on it!

"Interesting" Sephiroth said to himself. "The magic in this mask has accelerated me to my serif form…"

"Run Zelda!" Link yelled "I'll take care of him!"

Sephiroth turned to Link

"Fool." Sephiroth smirked "What could you possibly do to me?"

Link smiled, and as if from nowhere pulled out a chicken, and cut of its foot!

"Your sacrificing things to me?" Sephiroth laughed "Am I now the god of this world?"

"Not quite" Link smirked

Sephiroth could here something in the distance. It was faint and he could barely make it out, but it almost sounded like millions of chickens flapping this way. Sephiroth turned, and suddenly saw millions of chickens coming strait at him! He used his massive wings as shields, but the chickens were getting through!

"Coward!" Sephiroth yelled "You hide behind farm animals instead of face me?"

Sephiroth slashed half the chickens in two with one swing of his sword!

"You have no honor Link, why should I allow you and this world to live?"

Suddenly an arrow that glowed with the light of the goddesses hit Sephiroth in the chest! The shockwave obliterated the rest of the chickens, sending feathers flying everywhere! Sephiroth yelled in agony as the light from the arrow penetrated every part of his body! He slowly reverted back to his human form, and the moon in the sky faded away as if it had not existed.

"You impudent little.." Sephiroth mumbled as he turned to Link

"Give up you maniac!" Link yelled "I've beaten you in your most powerful form! Don't make me finish the job!"

"Foolish boy" Sephiroth said "Did you not think I wouldn't plan for this?"

Link was about to say something in response when an arrow pierced his heart! He dropped to his knees as the blood slowly seeped out.

Zelda stepped out from behind Sephiroth, holding the bow!

"She is my puppet Link" Sephiroth chuckled "She has been since you left the castle."

The look in Link's eye was one of complete horror, as he watched Zelda fire another arrow into him!

"I have killed the finest warriors" Sephiroth said walking toward him "Did you not think I could defeat you?"

Another arrow to the chest

"This is pathetic Link, you remind me of a little child I once slaughtered. He had the exact look in your eyes when I killed his mother."

With that, he ended Link by removing his head with his sword. Sephiroth turned and approached Zelda.

"And you my dear, remind me of a woman who I killed in front of my worst enemy. Aerith."

"Sephiroth…" Zelda whispered

"I know child" Sephiroth said as he ran her through "I know…"

Sephiroth then walked away from the castle, carrying the Fierce Deities Mask, shouldering the Master Sword, and jingling the Ring of Power in his pocket.


	5. Cloud and the Chief

Cloud had been walking for what seemed like days. He wasn't on earth, that much was clear, there seemed to be a giant monolith in the sky that went around the entire planet. He had slept, but he hadn't eaten. He hadn't seen a single animal or person. He stopped to rest by a massive rock, when he heard something.

Gun shots

He ran in the direction of the sound, carrying his massive sword on his shoulder. He reached a cliff overlooking some kind of temple. There were vehicles parked outside, some half destroyed, it seemed there was some sort of battle going on. Cloud leaped from the cliff and landed next to one of the vehicles. There wasn't much inside, but it had a machine gun turret of the back. He walked up to the temple, there were blood stains on the walls. He got closer and saw a corpse, but it wasn't human.

Clearly he was on some type of alien world.

More gunshots rang out from inside, echoing off the long passage ways. Cloud entered the temple, following the sound, hoping to find someone he could talk to, to find out what was going on. He turned a corner to find a room blackened with smoke and blast marks, he could see more alien corpses, but there were human corpses as well! Turrets lay broken, and the floor was littered with guns of all shapes and sizes.

He walked to the next room, and found a door that led to some sort of outdoor balcony. He heard more gunshots and ran out to the balcony. There he saw two massive aliens, wearing blue body armor and firing green energy beams from there arms, and fighting them was one man, covered completely in Green body armor! Cloud jumped into the fray, striking one of the aliens with his massive sword! It didn't even make a dent in there armor. The massive alien turned around and aimed his energy cannon at Cloud, suddenly the man in green shoved Cloud aside and quickly unloaded 2 clips from his two SMGs onto the alien. This had no effect either, and the man in Green rolled out of the way just before the green energy beam was fired.

"You know" Cloud yelled over the sound of the energy discharge "I could've handled that!"

"Sure kid" the man said tossing aside one of his SMGs and pulling out some sort of energy melee weapon.

The alien lunged at the man, who ducked and shoved his weapon into the open middle section of the alien, causing orange blood to gush out everywhere. He then tossed a glowing blue ball onto the other alien, which stuck to his face. Suddenly the ball exploded and the alien stumbled backwards. Cloud took the opportunity! He took his massive sword and dug it deep into the soft orange tissue until it came out the other side! In the process of trying to free his sword, he split the alien in half, dropping it like a ton of bricks.

"Nice work" The man turned and said.

"Thanks." Cloud replied bluntly, "Who are you, and where am I?"

The man looked Cloud up and down "Name's John, most people call me the Master Chief."

Cloud looked at the Chief impatiently and unimpressed "And where am I exactly?"

"Your on Halo, a ring floating out in space. It was designed to be a weapon that would annihilate the flood, a parasitic alien species, but it didn't work, instead it wiped out all life in the galaxy. And now those misguided covenant, are trying to reactivate it."

"The aliens we were fighting?"

"Yes."

"Now its my turn" the Chief said walking past Cloud to collect some fallen alien weaponry "Who are you, and why are you here?"

Cloud turned to the Chief "I'm Cloud Strife…."

"How the h did you get here?"

"I have no idea"

"Fine, don't tell me. Do you have any military training?"

"Yeah"

"Good, pick up a weapon"

"My sword will do just fine."

The Chief turned and looked at it. "Whatever you say."

Cloud sliced through another banshee as it buzzed overhead, ripping one of the wings off sending it careening into the chasm below. Chief jumped onto a banshee and pulled out the pilot, taking control of it, he let out a steady fire of plasma on the nearby turrets, mowing down the covenant, and melting the turret guns. He jumped out and let the banshee hit the ground, exploding on impact.

"Not bad kid" Chief said reloading his SMG

"We're not done yet" Cloud replied looking over at the rest of the covenant Soldiers loading into a massive Scarab Battle Vehicle. Cloud turned back to the Chief, but he was gone! He looked around to see where he went, when suddenly the Chief pulled up in a ghost.

"Hop on the back of this thing!" The Chief yelled over the hum of the engines

Cloud stood on the back section of the ghost as Chief rocketed it straight for the Scarab! Suddenly Chief veered off coarse, turning hard to the left! Cloud could see a hill, that broke off into a cliff. Chief was going to use it as a ramp!

The Ghost rocketed up the hill and into mid air! "Jump Kid" Chie yelled as he leaped from the seat of the Ghost onto the top platform of the Scarab. Cloud Jumped from the Back, and wielded his sword in mid air, he wasn't going to make it to the platform! He aimed his body for one of the legs, shoving his sword into one of the joints! The Scarab began spasming on one side. Cloud jumped to another leg and did the same thing, soon the scarab had stopped moving. Suddenly flames shot form the top platform of the Scarab, and a massive explosion followed, soon the whole thing would blow! Cloud jumped from the last leg onto the ground.

"C'mon Chief, you got to get out of there" Cloud said to himself.

Just then a large marine hover transport pulled up to the side of the Scarab! Cloud could see the Chief jump on.

The Scarab spasmed violently, its legs buckled, and finally it blew apart in a massive fireball!

The hover craft, flew in circle once to assess the damage before landing. It was full of Marines.

"Nice job Cloud" Chief said getting out of the craft "You should join up, help fight against the covenant."

"I would Chief…" Cloud sighed, "But… I'm not sure I'm going to be hear much longer."


	6. The Lion's Share

Sephiroth strode boldly across the plain, his massive army of Giants, ogres, and beasts behind him. Once again he was in charge of a fighting force sent to destroy the last remaining opposition against his new dark employer. He had arrived only days ago in this new land, and was quickly contacted by an evil sorceress. Promising him something he could not pass up, Sephiroth agreed to wipe out her enemies in a coming battle. The sorceress had s given him the advantage, for the night before she executed the leader of the opposing forces, they have lost hope, and will surely fall.

Slowly the cliffs on which the opposing army were stationed came into view. Sephiroth could see that they had prepared well, but they were greatly out numbered, and without their leader they would surely fall. Sephiroth raised his hand, ordering hi army to stop the advance, he would give them a moment to prepare before they began their attack. The cliffs were littered with creatures of all shapes and sizes, beasts, griffins, and horsemen. However, he only saw one human, who was stationed at the front lines, the sorceress had made it very clear to him, that he was to finish any humans as quickly as possible. She said there were only four.

Sephiroth raised his hand once more, motioning for the army to attack! The front lines of Sephiroth's army burst forth onto the plain separating the two massive fighting forces, but as they ran forward, birds and winged beasts emerged from the top of the cliffs, carrying large rocks and boulders! They began dropping them onto the advancing army, crushing Sephiroth's forces underneath!

"Second wave!" Sephiroth shouted, as he himself ran forward into the fray! Behind him came the rest of his army rushing into battle!

The opposing army had yet to advance at all, but above the sound of the shouting soldiers, Sephiroth heard the battle cry of his enemies!

"For Narnia!" the human yelled, as the Narnian army broke loose from the cliffs and rushed onto the plains!

Sephiroth was the first to strike the opposing forces, as the two armies converged, he sliced through leopards and horsemen! Large buffalo men brushed beside him beating down Narians in their way. Rocks were still falling from the sky, crushing wolves and tigers. Sephiroth took to the sky, soaring above the battle to the creatures who dropped the stones. A griffin turned in mid air, "another son of Adam?" he said in a startled voice.

"I am a son of Jenova" Sephiroth said as he sliced through one of the griffin's wings! The griffin screamed in agony as he plummeted to the battle below, having the effect of one of the stones he was dropping. Sephiroth darted through the sky, finishing the birds who were still stoning his troops, from this vantage point, he could see another human at the top of the cliffs! He bolted toward the cliffs, and landed about ten feet away from the child.

"You are one of their leaders?" Sephiroth scowled "You are nothing but a child"

Edmund starred back at Sephiroth "How did you get into Narnia?"

"I'm not sure" Sephiroth said walking closer "But I will fulfill my part in this battle, by finishing you and your siblings!"

Edmund stepped backward "Why are you working for the White Witch? She will betray you!"

"Poor sap" Sephiroth scoffed "Is that what happened to you? I heard about your little betrayal, and now Jadis has sent me to collect your blood!"

Suddenly soldiers of the Narnian army began running past Sephiroth in the opposite direction of the battle. Sephiroth peered over the cliff to see that the Narnian army was retreating!

"You've lost child" Sephiroth smirked "Your leader is dead, your armies are defeated, and now you will die, and this land will continue its everlasting winter!

Sephiroth raised his blade to strike, when a piercing mighty roar rang out over the plains! Without warning horsemen, foxes, leopards, griffins, and fauns stormed the cliff side!

"Reinforcements?" Sephiroth said as he pulled away from Edmund to engage the horseman coming toward him. Sparks flew in all directions as their blades clashed, Sephiroth had no leverage, he was on the edge of a cliff, and the horseman was at least three feet tall than he was.

"The King has returned!" the horsemen said in a confident voice, as he pushed his blade harder against Sephiroth's.

"You people and your kings" Sephiroth said "You put so much faith in them, and yet they will always fail you!" Pulled back his blade, and leaped over the horseman, slicing him from behind with his sword!

"You are all only flesh and blood!" he said as he slashed his foe again, causing him to loose balance and fall off the side of the cliff!

"Now for you boy." Sephiroth said as he turned once again to Edmund.

Just then an even louder roar blasted across the battlefield, Sephiroth turned to see a massive lion starring at him.

"You…." Sephiroth said stepping back. "That fool witch said she killed you. She obviously exaggerated"

"No" the lion replied in a voice that sounded fearsome and gentle at the same time. "I was gone, but there is a power here that the witch nor you can break."

"We'll see" Sephiroth said swinging his sword for a death blow to the lion! However before the blade even touched him, it shattered, turning to dust.

"You have no place here in Narnia" the lion roared "This fight is not yours to fight, and now is not the time for you to die." The lion looked deep into Sephiroth's bewildered eyes "But know this son of evil, there will come a day when you will be judged. And I will be there to see it."

Sephiroth stepped back as his eyes widened. This was the first time he had experienced fear since his last encounter with Cloud back in Midgar. The lion turned and walked slowly toward the battle that was still taking place on the plains. Sephiroth was enraged! How could an animal instill fear in him? He took the jagged broken blade on the hilt of his sword, and rammed it into Edmund's chest!

The Lion rapidly turned around and lunged at Sephiroth letting out a massive roar! It was too late! Sephiroth had already take off from the cliff, and was soaring in the direction of Jadis' castle.

Sephiroth landed outside the front gate of the castle, boldly walking into the throne room. Jadis stood expecting news of victory. Sephiroth didn't look at her, he meerly stated: "Your armies have failed, but I still demand payment!"

"What!" Jadis screamed "How could you have lost! You are far more powerful than any warrior they have!"

"Aslan is alive." Sephiroth said snapping a look at her "You should do a more thorough job of killing someone!"

"Aslan? Alive!?!" Jadis said, her voice becoming more fearful "B-but, surely you could have killed him! You said it yourself, you have weapons from other worlds! How could you lose!?!"

Sephiroth stared into space "There is a power in him greater than all of us. Not even you know its full extent. Now give me my payment for leading your armies!"

"You lost!" Jadis snapped, "You get no reward!"

"I may not be able to kill Aslan witch! But I am most certainly able to kill you!"

The white witch drew her scepter quicker than lightning, firing a bolt of magic that would turn Sephiroth to stone! Sephiroth raised his hand and caught the blast like a ball, and threw it to the ground as if a piece of trash. He raised his hand once more showing the ring of power he wore on his hand to the witch.

"Some magic is more powerful than yours" Sephiroth frowned, as he walked up the steps closer to the witches thrown. He walked up beside her, and whispered in her ear.

"Now tell me what I want to know, or I will kill you. Slowly"

"N-no." Jadis said in a frightened whisper. "You c-can't do this!"

"Tell me Jadis!" Sephiroth said, lightly rubbing his broken sword across the sorceress' neck.

"Tell me the Deplorable Word."


	7. The Matrix Has You

Cloud had found himself in a world that was similar to his own when he woke up three days ago. It had cars, planes, people in normal attire, and buildings just like there were in his world. Not an alien, or dark wizard in sight. Cloud had spent much of his time in this world just walking, exploring a vast city that seemed to go on forever, he was living in an old building in the heart of the city, no one knew he was there, and no one could find him, or so he thought.

One night as he returned to his temporary abode, there was some one in his house.

"Who are you?" Cloud asked impatiently, not knowing if this person was a friend or an enemy. The man standing in the room turned and faced Cloud, he was wearing a long black coat, and sunglasses.

"My name is Neo" the man said, "I have some questions for you."

"I'll be asking the questions!" Cloud yelled, "How did you find me and what do you want?"

Suddenly Neo was behind Cloud, on instinct, Cloud gripped his sword and swung around his back aiming to hit Neo in the head, the sword tip was centimeters away from Neo's face when Neo Raise his hand and caught the sword! Cloud's eyes widened with amazement!

"Now." Neo said slowly, "How did you get here?"

Just then Cloud's door was kicked open from the outside, three men in green suits and glasses stood in the doorway.

"There is the anomaly." one said

"And there is the other." Another followed in saying.

"One was expected and planned for, two will disrupt the code in time."

"What?" Could said under his breath.

"Can you fight?" Neo asked letting go of Cloud's sword

"Yes"

"Good."

One of the men lunged at Neo, who quickly evaded, and slammed a fist into the man's face, sending him flying into the wall on the opposite side of the room.

Another lunged at Cloud, who drew his sword and swung at the mid section of the man, like lighting the man ducked and followed through with a punch to Cloud's stomach knocking him back about three feet!

"Faster then they look," Cloud said hunched over in pain, the man walked closer to Cloud.

"This one does not carry the code of the One, he is simply a corrupt file, preparing for deletion."

Without warning the kneeling Cloud sword his sword parallel to the ground knocking the man off his feet. Faster than the man could think, Cloud stood and swung his sword vertically at the falling man beating him to the ground. The man lay there motionless, and began sparking with green energy, suddenly the man's body was gone and an elderly woman's body lay in its place.

"What's going on?" Cloud said as he stepped away from the corpse

"Follow me I'll explain." Neo said shrugging off corpse of the third man.

Cloud and Neo walked down the hall to an elevator, the spoke in hushed tones as the slowly rode to the ground floor.

"What were those men?" Cloud questioned "Why did an old woman's body appear in place of the one I killed?"

"Agents of the system" Neo explained "the can take control of anyone's body, at any time, and at any place. Now, how did you get here?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you"

"Try me"

Cloud explained how he had been riding his bike on the way to Edge City, when all of a sudden, the road was gone, he was now on a vast plane, miles away from civilization. He road for days until his bike ran out of fuel, then he walked until he found a village. When he discovered that no one had technology of any kind, he thought he had been transported back in time, it wasn't until he met the wizard Gandalf, that he discovered he had been transported to another world entirely.

He told Neo of his foe Sephiroth, who had been transported there as well, he told him Hogwarts and Halo, of the Master Chief and Aragorn, and then he told him of how he arrived in this world.

"It makes sense, since you are not jacked in to the Matrix, yet you are still here." Neo said.

"The Matrix?" Could said confused

"The world you have been transported to this time, is not an actual world, it is an artificial construct inside the real world, made by my enemies the machines. To put it in terms you understand, its like your in a video game, except what happens to you in it is real."

"Ugh…" Cloud said exasperated "Of coarse it is"

They were standing outside in front of the building now, as cars whizzed by, Neo took a phone from his coat.

"Is it ready to upload?" Neo asked into the phone "Good." He said as he hung up

Suddenly on the curb in front of them, streams of green code began falling like rain, forming into a vehicle of some kind.

Cloud smiled for the first time in a long time. "My bike! How did you do that?"

Cloud said mounting the familiar vehicle.

"We can read your thought patterns from our ship in the real world. You need a vehicle if we're going to escape."

"Escape?" Cloud said looking behind him as another bike generated for Neo. "Escape from what?"

Cloud turned back around and was startled when a man in a black suit and sunglasses was standing directly in front of his bike.

"What indeed." The man said smiling.

"Drive!" Neo said drawing a pistol and firing a shot at the Man's head. The man jumped out of the way, giving Cloud room to speed forward onto the street. Neo followed close behind.

Cloud began swerving around cars as his bike neared 100 mph, he heard guns shots behind him, He glanced up ward and saw that on the tops of buildings there were more of the man! The same man!

Suddenly they began jumping off the buildings and onto the street in front of Cloud, leaving small craters as the landed. Cloud began swerving around them as well as cars. The men began trying to grab Cloud as he passed on his bike, and when they failed they began shooting at him from behind.

"Who is this guy?" Cloud said to himself, but no sooner had he finished the thought, did one of the men land directly in front of his bike and slam his fist into the front, sending the back of the bike upward and launching Cloud at 80 mph, onto the road! Cloud skidded and bounced on the street before finally coming to a stop, he was bruised and bloody, and motionless as the man walked toward him.

"My name is Smith, Mr. Strife, and although the makers of the Matrix would not like me to interfere with there work, however I feel I am compelled to."

Cloud looked up at Smith standing over him as he tried to get up.

"As you no doubt have noticed, I can duplicate myself, that is how I am standing here speaking to you, while the rest of me are keeping Mr. Anderson busy."

Cloud slowly started to reach for his sword.

"You see, I am aware that you do not exist in the real world, and yet you are not a program, which must mean that you have come from somewhere else. A random occurrence as the result of some event that is binding your fate, or perhaps a planned action by one of your enemies, who knows? However if I am able to take your body, and make you me, then the next time this world skipping event occurs, it will take me. I will be able to conquer whole new worlds Mr. Strife, and soon I'll leave a little of me in every world in existence. Everything will be Smith and Smith will be everything! I will be GOD!"

"Y'know" Cloud said getting up, you sound an awful lot like this other guy I know. Cloud lunged at Smith with his sword, but before finishing his swing, he writhed in pain, his arm had been hurt.

"Foolish Mr. Strife, very foolish." Smith said smiling, as he grabbed Cloud by the collar, and stuck his other hand into his chest. Slowly, a dark green liquid began creeping across Cloud's body, engulfing him. Smith began laughing "The first step to godhood is taken tonight!"

Suddenly Smith's hand was ripped from Cloud's chest, as a flying Neo grabbed him at Supersonic speeds and flew him high into the air! Cloud gasped for breath as he collapsed to the ground, all the green liquid had left his skin. All Cloud could do was stare at the ground in pain. Then suddenly the pain was gone, and Cloud was no longer starring at the street. Now he was staring at wooden planks, he was somewhere new again.


	8. The Matrix Has You Epilogue

As the rest of Smith gazed into the sky at Neo fighting one of them, the quickly and quietly fled, without Cloud, they had no purpose to be there anymore. One particular Smith fled into an alley, where he planned to jump down a manhole and meet in the sewers with the rest of him. As he neared the manhole he suddenly stopped, a horrified look in his eyes.

"You know what I love about this world?" and unknown voice said. "It's all about willpower, if you have the will to do something you can do it."

Smith felt a hand shoved into his back, and black liquid began to creep over him.

"I have a will to be God" the voice said, "And I liked you plan, so I think I'll do that."

The black liquid enveloped Smith completely and then in began to recede. Revealing that the person with a hand in his back was no longer Smith, but Sephiroth.

Sephiroth turned to face the unknown voice in the shadows, and discovered that the unknown voice was the voice of Sephiroth. The two Sephiroth's stared at each other.

"Me, me, me" Sephiroth chuckled and the two of them laughed into the night.


	9. Avast!

Cloud sat in a cramped, damp cell, dripping wet, and surrounded by men who did not understand the meaning of the word "soap". It was his third day in this place. After he had escaped Agent Smith, he found himself on a ship in the middle of the ocean, a ship not crewed by men, but by monsters; hideous mutations of humans that had begun to change into different forms of sea life. He had only met the Captain of the vessel once, and that was when he was thrown into the brig.

Two of the fish men came walking by the corridor, dragging a man with them. They opened the cell door to put him in. In that moment Cloud would have tried something, but they had stripped him of his sword and Materia when he arrived. The fish man threw the prisoner in and quickly closed the door to the cell. The man stood up, looking quite agitated and a little confused.

"Thank you gents!" The man yelled back to the fish-men , "You tell Mr. Jones, that when I get out of here, Jack Sparrow will personally see to it, that his heart is put through a meet grinder! Savvy!?"

"You're Jack Sparrow?" Cloud said, taking a step closer

Jack turned, and looked Cloud up and down, "Why yes I am mate! I see that once again, my reputation precedes me!"

"Actually I've never heard of you, I just heard you say your name."

"Ah" Jack said, looking a little disappointed, "Well then you wouldn't know about my incredible ability to get out of a tight spot!"

"Really?" Cloud said, partly sarcastic and partly interested

"Baby steps mate" Jack said, making his way to the far wall, and peeking through one of the cracks in the wood. He pulled a compass out of his pocket and opened it, it didn't seem to point north, but Jack looked pleased anyway.

"What is this guy on?" Cloud muttered to himself, also making his way to the far wall.

"So?" Cloud asked, looking at Jack

"So." Jack said looking up from his compass, "We've got some time to kill before my brilliant plan saves our skins. So tell me mate, how is it you found yourself mixed up with Davy Jones? You don't look like you've sailed a day in your life! Am I right?

"Well your right, I've never sailed before."

"What about Jones?" Jack questioned looking back at his compass

"He caught me on his ship, threw me in here."

Jack looked up from his compass again "Well, how did you get on the ship in the first place"

Cloud sighed, "You wouldn't believe me"

"Mate" Jack said "I used to sail with a man who turned into a living skeleton at night, and we are now both in the loving care of a man with tentacles on his face, and who escorts the souls of dead men to their final resting place at the bottom of the sea. I'm sure what you've got to say is relatively normal."

So once again Cloud told his tale to a stranger from another universe.

"Well, one thing's for sure mate." Jack said peaking through the crack, "That is the strangest thing I've ever heard."

Cloud rolled his eyes.

"So this Sefy-watchimacallit, you've already sent him to the great beyond thrice, am I right?"

"Yes."

"And how did he manage to find his way back to the living this time, do you wonder?"

Cloud sat up, with a puzzled look in his eye. He hadn't given it much thought. He was always so preoccupied with what was going on that he never stopped to think how his old nemesis came back in the first place.

"You know I did think it was strange seeing him in middle earth, but…." Cloud said as Jack slumped down and sat on the floor. " I guess I was too blinded by my anger toward him, that it didn't register that he was supposed to be dead…"

"Fascinating isn't it." Jack said, resting his back on the wall of the cell that faced the outside. "The mysteries of life and death, y'know, they just don't seem to be absolutes anymore… which o'course is alright by me! Never did like bein dead! Now, young Mr. Strife, you will see why Captain Jack Sparrow can always get out of a tight spot!"

Cloud perked up, and looked at Jack anxiously.

"That's right lad, we're getting out! Now brace yourself against this wall, and stay as far to the sides as you possibly can!"

Cloud did as instructed, and watched as Jack looked at his compass again, Jack smiled and looked at Cloud, "Life and Death are a mystery mate, but maybe the poor blokes who are sharin' the cell with us can explain it, if any of em ever find their way out of Davy Jones' locker"

Suddenly the center of the wall they were braced against exploded, fire, smoke, and splintering wood erupted into the cell, killing anyone caught in the explosion.

Cloud's face was frozen, and his heart was beating at an extremely accelerated rate, Jack was already on his feet dusting himself off, he looked at Cloud with a large smile on his face,

"Well? C'mon mate! Or do want to stay here?

"YOU COULD HAVE WARNED ME!" Cloud yelled getting up.

"I s'pose I could've, but the you probably would've thought I was crazy." With that Jack walked through the gaping hole in the wall of the ship in a drunken stagger, and grabbed onto the outer trim of the ship.

Cloud gazed through the hole and was stunned to see a rather impressive pirate ship with black sails adjacent to the one he was on. Cloud followed Jack's actions (except without the drunken stagger) and made his way to the outside of the ship. He saw that Jack had scaled the side of the ship and was almost to the deck. Cloud slowly made his way up the side as Jack did, grabbing on to three-barrel cannons, ropes, and ornate carvings, he finally made his way to the top, where bedlam ensued.

Fish-men swashbuckling with pirates of all shapes and sizes, people slipping on the wet surface of the deck, and dead bodies littered the ground. A man with a shark head came running at Cloud, who dropped and kicked the feet out from under the shark-man sending him falling on his back. Cloud quickly grabbed the pistol from the shark-man's belt while he was down, and shot him in the chest. Suddenly Cloud turned and pointed his pistol directly at a woman who was running at him with a sword, he was about to pull the trigger, when a man with long brown hair, beat Cloud's arm down, causing the shot to miss, the man and woman immediately drew their pistols and aimed for Cloud.

"Will! Elizabeth! Don't Shoot!" a familiar voice rang out over the chaos, Jack ran up to them in his usual drunken stagger, "This is my cell mate your trifling with, meet Cloud Strife. He's no pirate, but from what I've erd, he's one heck of a fighter! So don't…" Jack just seemed to stare into space for a moment "…shoot him!"

Suddenly a man with tentacles on his face entered the fray: Davy Jones. Will, and Elizabeth broke their engaging stare with Cloud, and aimed for Jones, however two of his cronies came from the sides, dismantled their pistols with swords, and drew them off. Cloud looked at Jack, to see if he had a plan, Jack looked back and promptly turned and ran in the opposite direction.

"Sparrow you coward!" Jones cried spitting as he spoke "Out of my way boy!" Jones said pushing Cloud aside in pursuit of Jack.

"I don't think so" said Cloud, grabbing Jones' coat, and firing a bullet into his back! For a moment Jones just stood there, but then he began to chuckle. He turned and faced Cloud with a smile on his face.

"Foolish lad, very foolish indeed."

Jones drew his blade and swung at Cloud, who ducked and managed to pull away from him, he ran scrambling to find another weapon, he made his way to the helm, where Will was fending off a man with a shell for a head.

"Do you have a spare sword?" Cloud yelled over the sound of clanking metal and gunfire.

Thrusting his sword into the shell-man, causing him to fall overboard with sword still inside him, Will turned and replied, "Fresh out!"

Jones walked up the stairs that led to the helm, cutting down his own men to get through. "Tell me, Mister Strife" he bellowed, once again spitting as he talked, "Do ye fear death?"

"I'll give you something to fear beastie!" shouted Jack, who was now standing behind Jones, wielding Cloud's buster sword! He swung with all his might, slamming Jones in the side of the head, sending him tumbling over the railing of the ship and into the briny deep.

"Jack!" Will and Cloud exclaimed at the same time.

"I imagine that this fine sword is yours then, Cloud?" Jack said standing awkwardly while holding it."

"How'd you know" Cloud questioned

"Mate, only someone from another world could fight with this thing." With that he dropped it on the deck, and took a sword from a dead crewman, "This is more my speed."

"Will!" Elizabeth yelled, joining the group at the helm, "They're gone!"

"Who?" Jack questioned leaning over to look at the main deck of the ship. Sure enough all the fish-men were nowhere to be found.

Cloud looked over as well, "I guess taking out their leader takes out all of them"

Suddenly, the ship rocked violently, causing some crewmen to fall down.

"I don't think so" Will said walking over to the railing "EVERYONE BACK TO THE PEARL!" Without hesitation all the crewmen who had boarded the ship were now fleeing to the one with black sails, with the exception of Cloud, Jack, Will, and Elizabeth. "We have to get off the ship!" Will repeated.

"I agree!" Jack shouted raising his hand "In fact I agree so much, I think I'll do that now!" With that he bolted to a boarding line so he could swing across to the pearl, but just as he took hold of it, two massive tentacles shot up from the water, and slammed down onto the deck of the Pearl, breaking beams and poles. Two more came and wrapped around the back end, and then a fifth, and a sixth, and in a matter of seconds, the Black Pearl, and all those aboard her were dragged to a watery grave.

Jack still stood with the boarding line in his hand, poised to cross between ships (even though there was only one ship now). He still had an anxious high spirited look on his face, which slowly gave way to a hardened and serious face.

"Alright then." Jack said, slowly turning back to the group "Who wants to stay and help me gut this beastie?"

"Elizabeth, we had better be getting to the life boats" Will whispered, and the two of them ran onto the main deck and began making preparations to leave.

"So will you help me, young Cloud?"

"Sure"

"Well, that was a snap decision now wasn't it?!" Jack said, turning from Cloud, and gathering more weapons from corpses.

"Cloud!" Will shouted, now in a longboat with Elizabeth "Come with us! You wont survive!"

"I don't quit!" Cloud shouted back, and with that, Will began lowering the longboat into the water.

Cloud approached Jack, who was now on the main deck, "So you really think we have a chance?"

"No not really." Jack stated bluntly, putting on his hat.

"What! Then why aren't we abandoning ship!"

"Because the Pearl is gone!"

"We could get a longboat!"

"No, I mean there's no point because the Pearl is gone, I need to get her back!"

"And how are you going to do that?"

"Why by going in after her of course!

"WHAT! Jack, its just a boat!"

"Just a boat! I sold my soul for that boat, finest ship in all the seven seas that one."

Slowly the same tentacles that took the Pearl began to creep up the sides of the Flying Dutchman, wrapping around various parts of the ship.

"So, we're going to be dragged to the bottom of the ocean, and somehow get the Pearl back?" Cloud said readying his sword.

"No, we're going to Davy Jones' Locker to somehow get the Pearl back."

"Which is the equivalent of the Afterlife in this world right!?"

"Yeah pretty much"

"So we're going to die!?!"

"What's the problem ?"

"I don't want to die!!!! And besides how are we going to bring the pearl back if we're dead?"

"Hey, if Serpenteeneroth can do it, why not us eh?"

The tentacles tightened around the ship, breaking boards and shattering windows, letting water into the bottom of the ship.

"Besides I thought you said you wanted to explore the mysteries of life and death?" Jack said, unsheathing his sword.

Cloud stood, looking around him, sword at the ready, and closed his eyes. "Yeah I guess I did…"

In a simultaneous movement, Cloud and Jack sprung into action swinging their swords at the tentacles, and at that moment, in one fluid gesture, the beast broke the ship in two and dragged it down with Cloud and Jack aboard, sending them to their doom, in Davy Jones' locker.


	10. Crystals are amazing aren't they?

Unconscious.

Awake.

Sephiroth found himself in a small room, dimly lit, a mirror spannied the far wall, small turrets in all four corners.

"Hello?" Sephiroth said in a small voice. "Hello?" he said louder, reaching for his sword, finding that it was not there. He searched his clothes, the ring was gone, the mask was gone, and the seven emeralds he had taken from an annoying blue chipmunk were gone! "HELLO!?" he yelled, his eyes darting back and forth across the mirror.

"I must say I'm impressed." A voice boomed over a speaker system.

"Who are you?" Sephiroth asked impatiently, "Where are my belongings?"

"All in good time my friend." The voice answered "First your going to tell me how you've been managing to jump between universes."

"What are you talking about?" Sephiroth replied, clearly trying to hide his knowledge.

"Don't play the fool with me!" The voice echoed back "I am considered one of the top intellects in my dimension. You cannot fool me. Now tell me, how do you manage it?"

" I will not tell you anything!" Sephiroth smiled "And do you really think this cell can hold me? I have a way to destroy entire realities with a single word!"

"Ah yes." Boomed the voice in a sly tone. "The deplorable word. Rest assured you are no longer able to say it while in this room."

Sephiroth's face turned from one of confidence to one of surprise. "How did you know that?"

"Magic is not rare in this universe my friend. I have friends who have scanned your body and your belongings, and now know almost everything you can throw at me - like this ring I now wear on my finger, or your new ability to duplicate yourself."

Sephiroth began to sweat, it appeared this stranger had gotten the best of him. "What do you want." Sephiroth asked bluntly.

"Like I said: Tell me how you are able to travel to other universes."

Sephiroth paused, thinking it over for a second.

"To tell you the truth, I just stumbled upon it by mistake." Sephiroth began "You see my enemy, a man named Cloud Strife…"

"Ah yes, we've prepared for him as well, should he make his way to this universe." Sephiroth was once again surprised at the resourcefulness of this world. "Continue." The voice echoed.

"As I was saying, Cloud had extracted my essence from my host; Kadaj, and it had been sent back to the Lifestream, where all souls go."

"Intriguing" the voice boomed.

"For months I waited for my Mother to once again resurrect me, but she is gone. Those fools eradicated the last of her!" Sephiroth's face turned to one of rage, but slowly he regained composure, and raised his head to look into the mirror. "It was by fate that I was given another chance. You see as I waited, an anomaly in the Lifestream surfaced, streaks of green lightning flashed across its energy trail, and surged into my bodiless soul! They transported me to another world, where miraculously, my body was reformed!"

"Magic does have strange ways" said the voice

"Not magic! Science!" Sephiroth corrected "The place I was sent to was called 'The Black Mesa Facility' or so I gathered from the writings on the walls. It seems by manipulating crystals with certain energies, they were able to rip open the barrier between realities!"

"Astounding' the voice replied, now sounding interested.

"I discovered, since the dimensional energies had traveled through my soul, that my body now could generate the energy needed to activate the power of the crystals." Sephiroth slowly removed his glove on his right hand revealing a crystal that had been burned into his skin. "I decided I should keep one on my person at all times. You see, I've been traveling the worlds, looking for items of power, enough power to rid the universes of all life! To become a god!"

"Never did much care for gods. They always seem to be selfish little beings, who never want to share their power with the people who deserve it. Which is exactly what you are my friend." The voice paused. "But, what you lack, I will bring to the table"

"And what is it that I lack?" Sephiroth scowled.

"Imagination" The voice replied in a sinister tone. "What good is having control over the universe, if there's no one in it to control!? Think Sephiroth! With all that power, you could see to it that all conform to your way of thinking, that all serve you, that no one; especially Cloud Strife, will ever stand in your way again! And by you, I mean us."

"And why do I need you?" Sephiroth asked.

"Because I have all of your items of power."

"Then why do you need me?"

"Because we need more."

Sephiroth paused, he had never thought about this before. All his "mother" ever wanted was to rid the cosmos of organic life, but with her gone, he could expand. Perhaps this mysterious person was right.

"Alright" said Sephiroth finally, "Perhaps an Alliance would be beneficial"

"Excellent" boomed the voice. Suddenly the mirror began to fade, and Sephiroth could see there was another room behind it with several people in it. One with a microphone on his ear, this was the man who was speaking. He was about five feet tall, medium build, wearing a business suit. He had green eyes, and was completely bald. "You've just made a deal with Lex Luthor, the greatest criminal mastermind of **ALL** time!"


	11. In Transition

Time seemed to elapse differently here. Cloud had been staring at the sky for what seemed like days, or perhaps it was just a moment. The last thing her remembered was the stench of the Kraken, and then it was just the sky. Cloud finally got enough wits about him to realize he was laying down. He sat up and had a look around. For miles and miles all he could see was sand; pure white sand. In the distance were some mountains, but it looked as if they were hundreds of miles away.

"Jack!" Cloud yelled into the empty desert. "Jack are you here!?"

"You stay back.… you bugga!" a familiar voice rang out from behind.

Cloud turned and saw that behind him was the Black Pearl, completely intact and lying slantways on the sand. Cloud climbed onto the main deck to find Jack sitting there mumbling something about a peanut.

"Jack?" Cloud said as he approached. "Are you alright?"

"I said stay away!" Jack shouted back abruptly, grabbing his pistol "It's my peanut!"

Cloud's expression changed to one of confusion. "Jack." He said slowly "I don't want your uh… peanut. I want to know why we're not dead."

"Dead! Ha!" Jack said standing up in his usual drunken way "We are just as good as dead mate! We're in the locker!"

"The locker." Cloud reiterated

"Yes the locker! Davy Jones' locker! Now where is the rum!"

"How do we get out?" Cloud persisted, ignoring Jack's question.

"Sail I'd expect" Jack said, throwing himself back onto the deck.

"There's no water" Cloud said impatiently

"How very observant of you." Said Jack downing his peanut.

Cloud paced the deck, frustrated about how unhelpful Jack was being. He knew there had to be some way of getting out of this place, but he didn't know how. He also thought he could rely on the strange force that had propelled him thus far to take him to another world again, but that was a long shot if he was really in the afterlife.

Suddenly the ship rocked to one side causing Cloud to momentarily lose his balance. There was silence for a moment as Cloud carefully looked over the bow of the ship. The ship lurched again, this time more violently, and Jack rolled over. Cloud reached for his sword expecting trouble as the ship shook a third time. This time it began to tip so that the deck was nearly vertical. Jack began to slide and was nearly off the deck before Cloud grabbed the back of his shirt. Without warning a massive stone shot up from the white sand crashing into the side of the deck (which was now laying flat on the ground because the boat was now laying sideways) sending planks and splinters flying! The stone was white and smooth, and was about half the size of the Pearl.

"Save the Pearl Mate!" Jack yelled unfastening his pistol from his belt.

"Working on it!" Cloud yelled throwing Jack backward onto the other side of the ship which was now facing the sky. Cloud himself fell onto the stone and was going to try and dislodge the Pearl from it when he realized that two enormous claws gripped the underside of the ship! The stone shook causing Cloud to slip onto the sandy ground wear he discovered the massive stone was no stone, it had legs! Cloud Swiftly swung his sword, amputating a leg. The Pearl dropped with the sound of thunder back onto the earth, and the stone monster shifted it's position to face Cloud.

Cloud could now see this beast resembled a sort of crab, there was a crack in the middle of the stone where two beady eyes peered through. The monster lunged an arm at Cloud who quickly jumped to evade. He landed about twenty feet to the left where he immediately shot back at the crab behemoth stabbing it in the side of the head. This maneuver did not seem to have an effect so Cloud withdrew his sword from the stone and leaped onto the beast's head. The Crab was quick to react, rapidly scratching its claws across his rocky head trying to brush Cloud off. Cloud swung his massive blade at the monsters head scarring it, but not piercing it. Cloud ducked as a fast moving arm nearly took off his head, and jumped back down onto the ground. He then did what worked in the past, sliced off a second leg.

The creature seemed to become more enraged, moving more quickly to get a clear view of Cloud. It began working with both hands now, frantically trying to crush Cloud with its massive claws. Cloud tried to chop off another limb, but the beast was too fast and it disarmed Cloud with one blow. Cloud's sword was now too far away to reach, and the beast was reeling back for a finishing blow. All chance of escape seemed lost when a bullet ricoched off the creature's brow and it momentarily shifted it's attention giving Cloud enough time to take up his weapon again! Wasting no time he dashed under the monster and rammed his sword as far up it's head as he could. There was a brief spasm as Cloud twisted his sword, and then there was no movement. Cloud expected the Creature to fall so he ran out from underneath it, but it stood still, unmoving. It had turned to solid rock upon it's death, and Cloud breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for the assist Jack!" Cloud yelled referring to the pistol shot, as he starred at the statue.

"I'm afraid you have me to thank for that!" shouted a familiar voice

Cloud turned to see Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, and a crew of ragged looking men, one of which was holding up a limping Jack Sparrow.

"Will!" Cloud exclaimed in a confused sort of voice "How did you get here? And what happened to Jack?"

"We sailed" Will replied, "The sea is over those hills. As for Jack, he fell when the monster dropped the Pearl"

"Aye mate" Jack said with a painful smile.

So the party set out for the ship that had brought Will and Elizabeth to the locker. It was a long walk but when they finally reached the top of the distant hills, Cloud could see the beached ship, and then nothing but miles and miles of open sea. They boarded and cast off rather quickly, no one wanted to stay in that god-forsaken place for very long, and soon they were out to see. When they were about two miles out, the clear blue sky seemed to fade into night, and the sandy land mass that lay behind them disappeared. There were no lights except what appeared to be stars high in the "night" sky, and the sea seemed to made up of a different texture. In fact if you looked closely you could see the reflections of lost souls. Cloud stood in awe of the sight of all this, when suddenly lightning shot across the sky in between the stars, even though there were no clouds. The lightning was green and had an unnatural glow to it. Before Cloud knew what had happened he was no longer standing on a ship. Jack and the others were gone and it appeared to him that he was flying through space. The green lightning surged around him, and images appeared in the flashes. Cloud saw doors, transparent and too many to count, and after that he saw keyholes that shone with green light. A strange code began falling like rain, it was also glowing green. He saw a forest, filled with small pools of water, and they were filled with green light too. Then he saw something familiar, the warm green glow of the Lifestream, slowly caressing his body giving him extra strength. Although he saw these things in succession, it felt as if he saw them all at once. It was as if he had seen infinity and not understood it. Somehow the images he was seeing were familiar, and he knew that they had something to do with a gap between worlds, between dimensions. Then suddenly as quickly as the strange experience had come, it stopped and he was standing on top of a tall building, the wind and rain in his face. He opened his eyes and realized it was either late evening or early morning because it was very dark, and the only lights came from the other skyscrapers around him.

"Who are you?" a cold voice asked from the shadows.

"Here we go again." Cloud said to himself.


	12. Infinity

The Dark figure stepped toward Cloud, and Cloud receded in turn.

"Who are you?" The phantom repeated

"Who wants to know?" Cloud asked gripping the handle to his sword.

"I'll be asking the questions." Said the voice, but now it came from the opposite direction, behind Cloud. Cloud turned slowly. The rain made it hard to see and hear, so Cloud couldn't tell if there were was more than one man.

"My name is Cloud Strife."

"Then you need to come with me" the voice said, coming from yet another direction.

"Why?" Cloud questioned, slowly unsheathing his sword.

"Because the fate of the universes rests on your shoulders."

Suddenly a black figure bolted from the shadows, and before Cloud knew what was happening he was unconscious.

--

The enormous facility was buzzing with activity, saws grinding, hammers pounding, energy sizzling, Sephiroth could hardly hear himself think.

"How long Lex?" Sephiroth asked looking to his left at the man who had put all this noise into motion.

"A few more hours my friend." Lex chuckled. "A few more hours, and this will all be but a memory."

--

Cloud awakened to the soft sound of bats screeching in the distance, he was surprised to find that very little light met his eyes when they opened. He squinted as he looked around, it appeared to him that he was in a cavern of some kind, he saw computer monitors about fifty feet away, he got up from where he lay (which appeared to be some sort of operating table.) and slowly made his way over to them. He was about ten feet away when he noticed someone was sitting in a chair in front of the screens.

"How do we stop him?" a voice said, the same voice from the roof top. Cloud held his head as if he had a headache.

"Stop who?"

"Sephiroth." The voice responded. Cloud was taken aback.

"How do you know who that is?" Cloud asked trying to get a look at the strangers face. Suddenly the stranger swiveled around in his chair until he faced Cloud, and then he stood up. He was dressed strangely and yet frighteningly, he was dressed in black from head to toe and wore a flowing cape and a mask. The mask had two high points on the sides of his head, and it made him look like a giant bat.

"He arrived in this dimension two days ago, my satellites picked up the dimensional barrier penetration." The voice stated, Cloud looked stunned "However the touchdown point was in an unfortunate location and contact was lost with the bogey."

"What?" Cloud asked looking quite confused

"Your friend arrived in this dimension inside a secret military testing facility owned by one of the most evil men this world has to offer."

Once again Cloud wore a dazed look on his face.

"We need to infiltrate that facility and discover exactly how much this man has learned about your dimension hopping friend."

"Whoa wait a minute hold on hear." Cloud said backing away. "How do you know all this, and who are you?!"

"I'm Batman" the man in black stated turning his attention back to the monitor screen "And I'm that good. You'll have 5 minutes to prepare, then we leave."

--

"One more hour and it will be ready." Lex said with a smile, looking over some blueprints.

"And this will work?" Sephiroth asked looking over the same blueprints.

"Oh yes. You see we need this to accomplish our goal. In this universe you are either born powerful, or you have to work for it, there is no way to just instantly obtain power."

"In this universe?"

"Precisely. However in other universes, it is a different story."

--

The "Batplane", as it was called, flew like a dream. Cloud could hardly believe how smooth the ride was, he could see for miles over the city, and then came the silence. Batman was not the most talkative person, and it was a long flight to the next city. Cloud took this rare moment of relaxation to think about all his adventures. He thought of how far he'd come since he first fought Sephiroth all those years ago, he thought about every time that man showed up in his life, nothing but sorrow came of it. He felt rage and sadness when he thought of Aerith, the only woman he had ever loved. Sephiroth had taken her. The last time he saw that monster was when he mysteriously appeared in Middle Earth Now somehow they had found themselves in the same dimension again.

--

"90 minutes until project start. Lets review once more." Lex said pulling out some papers.

"Yes." Sephiroth said sitting down to the table. "You said you've had contact with this other universe before?"

"Indeed." Lex replied "This universe that we are trying to infiltrate has had the most contact with mine, out of any other universe in existence."

"Interesting."

"Yes. However a being called Darkseid had one of the more interesting encounters. During this encounter her learned of seven gems of extraordinary power called the Infinity Gems. However, once he learned that the power of the gems was diminished in this universe he dismissed them from his mind."

"So even if we succeed in obtaining these gems, they will have no effect?

"True enough, however you have the ability to traverse dimensions. If we can't have this universe, can we not have all others?"

--

Batman and Cloud finally arrived in the next city, what Batman called Metropolis, and awaited the arrival of the final member to their team. They stood on the roof of a skyscraper, far taller than the one on which they stood the night before, and this time in was mid day. Batman seemed uncomfortable in the light, and was getting impatient. Suddenly a gust of wind shot past, and Batman looked skyward. Cloud did the same and as he did he was startled. There, hovering three feet off the ground was a muscular man wearing a blue suit and draped in a red cape.

"Cloud Strife?" The man questioned in a slightly more upbeat tone than used by Batman.

"Uh yeah, that's me" Cloud said, putting his hand over his eyes to shield from the sun.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Superman."

Cloud looked Superman up and down. "So where is this underground fortress?" he asked.

--

"15 minutes and counting" Sephiroth muttered looking at the enormous digital clock that hung in the center of the facility. "So what exactly can these seven gems do?"

Lex smiled, as if he would burst holding it in any longer. "They have seven distinct abilities, unlike those seven chaos emeralds you brought with you, these gems can function quite powerfully on their own. The first is the Space gem, it allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space."

Sephiroth was already smiling

"The second is the Mind Gem, It allows the user to boost mental power and access the thoughts and dreams of other beings. Third is the Soul Gem, arguably the most dangerous, this gem is sentient and has a hunger for souls. It allows the user to steal, manipulate and alter souls, living or dead."

Both Sephiroth's and Lex's eyes shone bright with greed as they thought about it.

"The Fourth" Lex continued "Is the Reality Gem, which is perhaps the most powerful and difficult gem to use, it allows the user to fulfill wishes, even if that wish is in direct contradiction with scientific laws. It can result in disaster if not careful with the nature of the wish. The Fifth is the Time Gem, it allows the user total mastery of time. Past, present and future are all accessible or visible through its power."

By now Sephiroth had drown out all other noise and listened intently to Lex Luthor's voice.

"Sixth is the Power Gem, it contains access to all power and energy that ever has or will exist, it can also amplify the effects of the other gems. It allows the user to duplicate almost any physical superhuman ability and become invincible, and therefore unbeatable, when using raw power alone."

Sephiroth stood and gazed at the digital clock as if willing time to move faster so that he could get his hands on the gems. 8 minutes remained.

"The Last gem." Lex said in a low voice "Is the Ego gem, it allows the user to manipulate dimensional energies. And I don't know how…" He looked at Sephiroth "But you have that one burned into your hand right now."

--

Batarangs flew at security cameras, heat vision melted guard's feet to the floor, and swings of the buster sword cut down armored security drones.

--

The time had come, Lex's magnificent machine was complete. It looked like a massive circular window that spanned the entire facility. It was made of titanium, and had wires and electrodes all along the structure. It's base was large and metallic, and had a small podium that extended from the bottom. The podium had an imprint of a hand on the top, and was flashing with green light.

Sephiroth walked calmly up the steps that led to the podium, and gently placed his hand in the indentation.

"Initiate the start-up sequence." Lex boomed into a microphone.

Various sounds began echoing through the facility as the machine came to life. Metal coils began spinning, and electricity began surging around wires. Soon the entire room was alight as spurts of bright energy cascaded around the machine. Lightning crackled and an unnatural wind began to blow. Suddenly the massive window in the machine filled with spiraling green light, and the facility was flooded with the sounds of an alternate universe.

"Concentrate on the man I told you about Sephiroth!" Lex's voice boomed over the loud speaker.

Sephiroth made a grimace and in an instant the green light of the window spasmed and brought forth a single man. He was wearing a red cape with gold fringe and a large collar. His hair was black, but it began to gray the lower on his head it got. His clothes were indigo, and he wore a pendant on his chest.

"Wh-What are you doing!?" The man cried. "Is-is that the ego gem!?!?"

Suddenly he began spouting words no man had ever heard before, the sounded ominous and full of power, however Sephiroth was prepared, he lifted his hand that wasn't on the podium which now had the One Ring he obtained from Sauron on it (Lex had given it back to him), and used its power to absorb whatever magic that was held in the words spoken by the man. Sephiroth left the podium, however the portal continued to stay open, and plunged his hand into the man's chest. Slowly a black liquid began to creep over the man's entire body, transforming him into a Sephiroth duplicate.

"Yes!" Lex cried from his stand by the microphone. "Now we can use the man's power, which resides in your duplicate, to summon the Infinity gems!"

Suddenly the main doors to the Facility burst open, and in the frame stood Batman, Superman, and Cloud Strife.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud yelled at the top of his voice as he drew his sword.

"Heh." Sephiroth chuckled, also drawing his own sword. "Cloud."


	13. The Beginning of the End

Static filled the room as the tension between the two factions grew. Cloud on one side, backed by two of the greatest heroes this world had ever produced, Superman and Batman. On the other side stood Sephiroth, sword drawn, and ordering the masses of Lex-corp. troops to hold back for the moment. Cloud was breathing heavily but the only sound anyone could here was the deafening hum of Lex's wormhole generator, still projecting a doorway into another world. Just then, Cloud noticed that there were two Sephiroths! The other was standing close to the portal raising his hands, beginning to utter words that seemed to be full of magic!

"We have to take both Sephiroth's out Cloud" Batman whispered moving closer, but take out the one closest to the portal first. I have a bad feeling about all of this."

Cloud swallowed hard. "Go." He stated in a whispered.

Faster than a human could blink, Superman was already among the foot soldiers tearing them apart! Sephiroth gave the signal to attack and the rest of the troops fired hot lead in all directions. Batman immediately reached in his belt and began throwing a myriad of objects into the crowd. Batarangs, ice pellets, smoke bombs, the Crowd became disoriented, all except for Sephiroth. Cloud hadn't moved yet, but then again he didn't need to, in an instant Sephiroth was upon him swinging his sword in quick rapid slices. Cloud was moving now, countering Sephiroth's strikes blow for blow.

"What are you doing here Sephiroth!?" Cloud shouted pushing his feet off of a wall propelling him into the air. Sephiroth was silent, but his devilish smile revealed his anticipation. Alarms began to sound as countless security drones began pouring into the main room, many were dismantled immediately by Superman, but more and more doors began to open each filled with what seemed to be an infinite number of drones inside. The Second Sephiroth was growing louder with his incantation and the Portal began to spasm again and ripple furiously. Cloud swung his sword at Sephiroth, distracting him while he pulled a smoke bomb Batman had given him from his belt. Cloud threw the bomb at Sephiroth's face just fast enough for it to be effective. The bombe exploded with a thick cloud of black smoke that instantly forced Sephiroth to choke on the very air he was breathing. Cloud leapt onto the base platform of Lex's machine, and ran to strike the second Sephiroth, whose eyes were now glowing. However before he reached the doppelganger her was struck down by a large mechanical fist. Cloud reeled from the blow, regaining his balance and gazed at his attacker. It was Lex Luthor, he was inside a large green exoskeleton battle suit, which seemed to give him super-strength.

"I don't think so boy." Lex chuckled pointing a fist at Cloud. "I've come to far." Suddenly a small gun turret popped up from Lex's forearm and fired two small ballistic missiles at Cloud! Cloud braced for impact, but only heard the sound of the explosion. He opened his eyes and saw that Superman was in front of him with a smoking chest.

"It's over Luthor!" Superman stated firmly, his eyes burning red at the sight of Lex.

"Is it?" Came the voice of Sephiroth gliding in from the left, striking Superman with his sword. However his sword snapped in two on contact with Superman's invulnerable skin. For a moment Sephiroth looked stunned, but the next moment, a Kryptonian fist collided with his face at supersonic speed knocking him clear across the facility and unconscious.

"Take out the other one!" Batman yelled kicking a guard in the face.

Superman turned and flew at the other Sephiroth as fast as he could, but when he was not even three feet away he seemed to hit an invisible wall. His body coursed with energy and he let out a shout of pain before being blown back twenty feet!

"Magic!" Superman said in a painful voice.

Sephiroth didn't seem to notice and kept on chanting.

"Foolish alien" Lex smiled, pushing a button on his other for-arm. Suddenly a compartment in the chest of Lex's battle suit opened, and green light poured out bringing Superman to his knees. Cloud didn't know what was happening, but Batman did and immediately sprang into action. Cloud started to run at Lex, but Batman shouted "Take out Sephiroth! I'll handle Luthor!"

Cloud did as he was told and Turned to face his old foe. The entire machine was shaking now, the electrodes burst with green energy as the portal itself became more and more erratic. Cloud could see that Sephiroth's incantations were reaching their crescendo. Cloud slowly walked up behind the raving Sephiroth and put out his sword, gently striking the invisible barrier around Sephiroth. Cloud struck again, this time with more force, the again, and again, and again, each time with more force than the last until he was striking with all his might. Sephiroth simply continued his spells unphased, his eyes now glowing with the same green interdimensional energy as the portal. Cloud, now almost exhausted, turned his head to see that Superman was now up, and a great battle ensued between him, Luthor and Batman. The sounds of their blows echoed through the facility as Cloud again turned to Sephiroth.

Suddenly a massive ripple was sent forth from the portal and for a moment there was no sound at all, not from the machine, not from the battle, and not from Sephiroth. Everyone focused their attention on the portal. Then, like the effect of popping your ears, the sound returned and six small shiny stones floated gently out of the portal.

"CLOUD! DESTROY THEM!" someone behind him yelled

Cloud burst into the air at top speed and leapt over Sephiroth to destroy the gems. Superman and Batman broke away from Lex and bolted for the gems as well. However to their dismay, Sephiroth extended his magical barrier to encompass the entire span of the room, making an impenetrable wall dividing the room in half. All they could do was watch in horror as Sephiroth slowly reached out and gently touched the first gem, The Power Gem, glowing red with raw energy. Lex's eyes shone bright withy twisted joy as his partner drew the rest into his arms.

"Yes Sephiroth! We have done it! The Multiverse is ours!"

Like lightning Sephiroth's head snapped back around staring at Lex, his eyes how oozing red energy. " I think you mean mine."

"W-hat!?!?" Lex scowled activating all his weapons systems. "You cannot utilize the gem's powers while in this dimension you fool! We can still destroy you!"

"Foolish little man" Sephiroth snapped speaking even more coldly than he usually does. "The rules of the Multiverse have changed. They have been in flux ever since Cloud and I started our journeys."

"What have you done Sephiroth!" Cloud yelled lifting his sword.

"SCILENCE INSECT!" Sephiroth yelled, his voice now deep and monstrous, echoing through their very souls. "The powers of a god are at my command!" Suddenly his magical barrier dropped, and small thread like strands of red energy burst from all directions and impaled Lex Luthor in every single pore on his skin. The others couldn't move, the raw power of Sephiroth's being now held them at bay. Sephiroth could not contain his maniacal laughter, slowly he grew larger and larger, and one by one he absorbed the power of each and every Gem! With a thought Sephiroth summoned to him every magical item he had obtained in his travels and put them on. The sheer force of the power began opening cracks in space, from which the white light of oblivion shone through. They knew they were doomed. The ring of power shone bright on Sephiroth's finger, the Fierce Deities mask transformed his body once again into a massive multi winged Angelic beast, he wore no shirt, and the chaos emeralds were embedded into his chest. A great black wing emerged from his back, and with his mind he conjured a golden gauntlet infused with the six Infinity gems which he wore on his hand and his eyes shone bright with the energy of a god. Sephiroth now towered above the three heroes, shining in evil radiance.

"All worlds perish this day." A monstrous voice bellowed out of Sephiroth's mouth. "However, I am not an entirely unjust god. I will let the specs have their final moments." He shut his glowing eyes, and with a thought and the roaring sound of liquid thunder, everything in that entire universe, except the room in which the stood, was utterly obliterated. Through holes in the walls they could see only white, white emptiness. Batman and Superman fell to their knees. Superman sobbed for his loved ones, and Batman just stared at Sephiroth. "A will wait through the portal, when you have said your prayers you may enter and receive judgment." Then in a blinding whirlpool of light he was gone.


	14. the Lull

Only Cloud stood. All of them were speechless. Never in his entire lifetime had Cloud felt such hoplessness. Superman and Batman sat in quiet depression, felling an unescapable loss. The silence into them like knives, even Superman could not pick up a single sound, save the heartbeats of the three of them alone in that room.

"We can't stop him." Batman whispered

"We can't" said Cloud, stareing vacantly at the portal.

"We have to."

"How can we!" Cloud shouted turning to face Batman. "He's destroyed an entire universe with a thought! How can we defeat him!?"

"Think." Superman said in a cold voice rising to his feet. "That madman just murdered trillions of lives Cloud. Now you tell me how to beat him, or so help me, I will add one more to the list of the dead!"

Cloud turned back around, gazing at the portal. He was at a complete and total loss. Suddenly, something interesting caught his eye. In the rubble of one of the walls was a very familiar face.

"That's it!" Cloud yelled, motionaing Batman and Superman to follow him.

"What is it?" asked Batman

Cloud simply made his way over to the wall, and pulled out the body of Sephiroth, the one Superman had knocked unconscious.

"Superman." Batman questioned "Can you scan his body for anything we could use against the other one."

"Let's see." Superman said already eyeing Sephiroth with his X-ray and microscopic vision. "Cloud!" Superman gasped "Take off his right glove!"

Cloud did so and at once all three of them saw what could be their last chance. The Ego Gem, or a copy of it, was still burned into Sephiroth's hand! Without hesitation Superman ripped the stone from Sephiroth's flesh. He stared at it for a moment, and held it out to Cloud.

"Why are you giving it to me?" Cloud asked backing away.

"You are the one who has traversed dimension after dimension to get here." Superman replied "Of all of us, you should know how to use this the best."

Cloud stood and looked at the gem, and reluctantly took it in his hands. For a moment, their was silence. Then suddenly the gem came alive with glowing green energy that coarsed through Cloud's body, it felt as if he were going to die, there was a deep pain, and his mind became confused, but when he finally composed himself, everything was clear. The gem had now burned into his hand like it had done with Sephiroth, and it had enfused Cloud with the knloedge of how to use it.

"Well?" Batman asked.

"We might have a chance." Cloud smiled as he stretched out his hand. He closed his eyes, and with a thought, numerous dimensional portals began opening around the room, and out of them stepped a myriad of heroes. Aragorn, the Master Chief, Neo, Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann were now standing in front of Batman and Superman.

"And these would be?" Batman asked raising his brow.

"Backup" Cloud smiled

"So we're going to go fight a demonic god with a Knight, an albino in a trench coat, a robot, and three pirates?"

Neo and the Chief pointed their guns at Batman and prepared to fire, Cloud jumped in the middle.

"Woah! Ok, lets all get along here! The gem has given me information we can use to defeat Sephiroth! I guess I should update you late arrivals to the current situation.

"Oh you mean the giant wingy thingy floating rather ominously in the sky?" Jack chimed in.

"Sephiroth has apparently appeared in the skies of all our worlds." Aragorn stated "Although he looks quite different than the last time we faced him."

"I'm guessing you gathered us all here to help you kill him?" asked the Chief "How are we supposed to do that? UNSC forces have already tried getting a lock on him, its like he's a massive hologram."

"I believe Sephiroth is using the gems to project himself into every dimension in prepearation of his godhood." Cloud explained. "But as I was saying the Ego Gem has offered up valuable information. There are only supposed to be seven Infinity Gems. Since Sephiroth duplicated himself and the Gem in his hand, there are eight at the present time. Theoretically if the two Ego Gems were to touch, it would cause a reality bending explosion of cataclysmic size."

"So the plan is to what exactly mate?" Jack asked leaning on the Chief taking a sip of rum.

"You all need to distract him long enough for me to reach his right hand. Once we touch the resulting explosion should eradicate all matter within a galaxy wide radius. At least, that's what the Gem tells me."

The group was silent for a long while.

Master Chief at last said what everyone else was thinking, "So we're not coming back."

All eyes turned to Cloud.

"I can send anyone who wants to leave home." Cloud said, not making eyecontact with anyone. "This isn't your fight, I'll understa--"

"Cloud." Aragorn interrupted "It is our fight, as much as it is yours. Our worlds are in danger too, and not just ours, but all worlds. We fight today not as representatives from our separate worlds. Not as Knights, not as soldiers, not as warriors. No, we fight as living things, as brothers! And we will not abandon you!"

Cloud could not speak, and neither could the others. They knew their time had come, but it didn't matter. All that mattered to everyone in that room, was stopping Sephiroth. (Okay, so all Jack cared about was rum. Just ignore that.)

"You guys are just like my friends back home." Cloud said at last lifting his head "You always know what to do, even if I don't."

"Oh enough with the sappy stuff already mate!" Jack cried taking another swig of rum "Today's as good a day as any to die! Let's get to it!"

The group all turned and faced the portal. It's eerie green glow still illuminated the room.

"For Gondor!" Aragorn shouted raising his sword, rushing into the portal.

"For Elizabeth!" Will was next, taking Elizabeth with him by the hand

"Lois." Said Superman, solomley floating into the portal.

Neither Batman or Neo said a word as they walked through.

"For Rum!" Jack yelled drukenly staggering into the portal.

Cloud and the Chief were the only ones still in the room.

"For Home." The Chief said quietly, as he made his way into the portal.

"Yeah." Cloud said raising his massive sword onto his shoulder. "For Home."


	15. The Final Battle Part 1

Cloud was greeted with by the sight of his friends as he reached the other side of the portal. However, this was the only thing he saw. It seemed that they had entered a world of complete nothingness, all around for hundreds and thousands of miles, there was just "white". One could not tell where the sky began and the ground ended. There was no landscape, no imperfections, no clouds, nothing visibly different. Except of course for Sephiroth.

He stood about ten feet away. He no longer looked like a massive demi-god. It seemed he had returned to human form. He wore his black trench coat as always, and was just standing there holding his sword. However, Cloud noticed something was still not right about him. Their eyes locked, and without warning, all of his friends vanished! Cloud gasped and took a step forward; it seemed foolish now to think that their plan could have ever worked.

"Don't worry Cloud." Sephiroth said smiling, however it was not Sephiroth's voice, it was that deep demonic voice that he had heard earlier. "I'm still here."

Cloud couldn't move, he was frozen where he stood.

Something began stirring on the ground near Sephiroth's feet, it was a sort of green dust. It swirled upward and became thicker and thicker until it formed a person. Aerith. Cloud gasped in amazement.

"Well…' Sephiroth said turning to her "She's here too."

Suddenly, what appeared to be another Sephiroth came out of the sky and impaled her with his sword. The original Sephiroth began laughing, and both Aerith and her killer faded into the same dust that spawned them.

"Wh-whe-" Cloud tried to say, when he was struck speechless again by even more familiar faces. More dust swirled and in the same fashion, all of Cloud's friends appeared before him. Barret, Vincent, Tifa, Yuffie, Red, Cait Sith, Cid were all now standing before him. Then Zack walked up to him. He smiled with the smile of a great friend, but then his face turned to one of hate.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT!!!!" Zack screamed getting in Cloud's face "YOU LET HIM KILL HER!" he pointed at Sephiroth "IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU SHE'S DEAD!"

Zack had more to say, but he couldn't be heard over the screaming of Cloud's other friends. Behind Zack, Sephiroth was enjoying the deaths of all his enemies, one by one, until finally he came to Zack and stabbed him through the heart. Sick joy was on Sephiroth's face as he leaned in close to Cloud.

"Welcome to Eternity." Sephiroth chuckled his demonic voice, his eyes now glowing red.

"Wh-where are we?" Cloud finally managed.

"You don't recognize it?" Sephiroth questioned turning around. "But this is where one of our greatest battles took place!"

"M-my mind?" Cloud said, his eyes growing wide with realization.

"I'm impressed Cloud, that was much quicker than last time."

"So th-this is your big victory? Torturing me until my mind breaks?"

"All I've ever wanted to do was bring you despair after you defeated me. Now your mind will crumble, and despair will be all you will ever know."

"Funny." Cloud said raising his head "I was under the impression you were some great warrior Sephiroth. B-but I can understand. Growing desperate after all those humiliating defeats."

Flame erupted all around, the very air ignited, and the sky and earth turned from white to pitch. Sephiroth turned, his eyes blazing.

"YOU DARE MOCK ME!"

"You mock yourself Sephiroth, you never get your way and it makes you angry, and the only thing you ever do is kill defenseless civilians to make you feel better. I see now that you're a coward. Why were we ever so afraid of you?"

Reality itself bended, and time seemed to become abstract. Universes trembled on their foundations as the sky and ground faded away. Cloud found himself back in the whiteness of that strange dimension, standing by the friends who walked in the portal with him. They, like him, seemed to have just awaked from a dream. They looked up and saw that the massive God-like Sephiroth was staring down at them from above.

"So it's a fight you want is it?" his demonic voice boomed, as if coming from all directions. "Then it's a fight you'll get!" suddenly his eyes flashed with yellow light, and from thin air, more green dust appeared and created a massive dust storm that seemed to stretch for miles! Slowly the massive swirling cloud formed into a vast army, an army of Sephiroths, each with a despicable smile on their faces.

"Beware, the end is at hand"

"Not if I can help it!" Cloud yelled, raising his right hand to the sky. With the same sudden flash, Clouds eyes snapped with green light as he activated his gem. A look of surprise sparked across all of Sephiroth's faces, as Cloud began to yell at the top of his lungs. Slowly a swirling portal appeared behind Cloud, then another and another, and with each one that appeared a dozen more sprang up with increasing speed, until the entire sky behind the band of heroes was filled with glowing green portals as far as the eye could see. Cloud seemed to be in pain, but that didn't stop a smile from creeping across his face. He knew who was coming and thanks to the gem, he knew them all by name. Slowly the openings in the portals filled with people who were coming through. Heroes, soldiers, monsters, beasts, wizards, entire armies, armadas, and fleets, all who had seen Sephiroth appear in their skies. Countless numbers, one could scarcely name them all, but Cloud positioned the best and brightest on the front lines. Slowly they assembled behind the first party of heroes who had come with Cloud. Aragorn saw the armies of Gondor and Rohan both assembled to his right, the star ships of the UNSC had just warped in from above, Neo was surprised to see millions of Smiths coming through and falling in line to help! Spiderman and the Avengers stood behind Batman and Superman. The Autobots stood side by side with the Decepticons as the Jedi armed their lightsabers, and the Deathstar warped in overhead. A dozen Links from a dozen Hyrules had come through various portals, and they stood next to Mario, Luigi and the entire Mushroom Kingdom army. Squall tossed Jack Skellington a gun-blade as Galactus summoned his various heralds. Achilles emerged followed by Sonic, Aang, Jak, Daxter, Samus, Hellboy, Zorro, Nightmare, the Starship Enterprise, Sora, Monkey D. Luffy, Pacman, Zim, Nick Fury, King Kong, Spok, the Rock, Doc Ock, and an entire army of Spartans, Protoss, Power Rangers, Irkens, Trojans, Gundams, and Super Saiyans. All these and countless others began falling into battle formation as the Sephiroth's watched in awe of the fighting force that matched even their own in number, and possibly even strength!

Cloud fell to his knees from the stress of what he had just done. Beads of sweat dropped from his face to the clear white ground. Yet he retained the strength to raise his head and gaze at the one they had gathered here to fight, and his hope was renewed in the faintest of chances. A chance at victory.


	16. The Final Battle Part 2

A look of astonishment still adorned Sephiroth's face. He had not expected this from Cloud. Not that it mattered, he could still create endless legions of Sephiroths to do his bidding. Though surprised, Sephiroth was not worried.

The endless masses shifted into place slowly and even as they formed battle lines, more and more kept coming through the portals, adding to the largest fighting force ever assembled. Cloud slowly rose to his feet at the head of his army, and gazed skyward at Sephiroth still hovering overhead.

"This is it" Batman said putting his hand on Cloud's shoulder.

"We're behind you all the way mate!" Jack chimed in.

"Let's show him what we're made of." Said the Chief arming a Spartan laser he received from a recently landed UNSC Pelican.

Cloud took his sword by the hilt and raised it toward the sky pointing directly at Sephiroth. For a moment he just stood there and closed his eyes, taking in the moment. When he finally opened his eyes he let out a battle cry that rippled through the masses, causing everyone to join in. The deafening roar of the massive force filled every millimeter and crevice of the endless white dimension. The Chief rushed past Cloud and began firing into the enormous army of Sephiroths ahead. He was followed by the entire multitude, all of whom began shooting, blasting, and firing their various weapons as well. With disturbing silence the Sephiroth army followed suit, swiftly rushing toward the charging force. Left and right the Sephiroths on the front lines were being cut down like so much wheat. One could barley see through the explosions and smoking gloom that covered the battle field at the head of Sephiroth army. Hundreds of Sephiroths already lay dead, and the two armies had not even reached each other, however for every one that died, the original just spawned more. Like two separate liquids mixing for the first time, the two vast armies seemed to merge and blend in a flurry of blinding glorious destruction. Aragorn ducked under the swing of Sephiroth's sword, and countered with his own, shoving it through the bottom of Sephiroth's jaw! Batman removed two Batarangs from his utility belt, pushed a small button on each of them, and they suddenly extended into long sword like weapons. Leaping into the fray he cut down two Sephiroths at once. Sephiroth twirled around behind Neo and slashed him across the back, as another Sephiroth rammed a boot into his face. However Neo then jumped into the air and performed a split kick, knocking the two Sephiroth's in opposite directs. Another Sephiroth lunged at Spiderman just in time to receive webbing in his face and an insult about his mother. Three Sephiroths had cornered Samus up against a crashed star destroyer. The trio rushed forward swinging their swords wildly in all manner of skill, but as they were about to slice into her suit, Samus activated her laser grapple and snatched a sword form one of the Sephiroths while simultaneously arming her laser cannon with her other arm. With a flash the unarmed Sephiroth dropped to the ground with a hole in his chest. However the death of their fellow soldier had no effect on the other two, they prepared their swords for a finishing move. Inches before the cold steel of their swords reached Samus, a massive green man with purple pants dropped in from the edge of the crashed star-destroyer and crushed them both in a single stroke! He then proceeded to eat the leftovers. Jak stood back to back with the Master Chief, unloading clip after clip of hot lead into the legion of Sephiroths converging upon them. Jak switched his weapon mod to a shotgun, and the Master Chief set aside his two SMGs to once again use the Spartan Laser he had placed on his back. The Sephiroth hoard was relentless, they completely ignored the fact that their comrades were being blown apart by the onslaught of high caliber ammunitions and lasers. Little by little they began taking ground, ever so slowly edging their way closer to Jak and the Chief. Without warning, the white ground they were all standing on rippled with seismic waves, suddenly massive pillars of the white earth rose up with incredible speed, sending Sephiroths high into the air. A small blind girl by the name of Toph leaped over the attacking Sephiroths and joined Jak and the Chief, moving her hands and feat rapidly causing the earth to buckle and bend, pushing the Sephiroths back! On the other side of the battlefield a Sephiroth's face was violently split in two as it collided with Captain America's shield. As the shield returned to its owner, he delivered a super-human kick into the gut of another Sephiroth. Hearing a loud explosion Captain America turned and looked up in time to see A UNSC Pelican escorted by two tie fighters zoom over head, air dropping Marines and troopers as they flew. Over the horrible sounds of pitched combat a melody of instruments played songs of power, summoning rain and thunder, and transporting their green-hatted players across the battle. High in the air above, scorching electricity flowed through the bodies of multiple Sephiroths as they were blasted by Thor and Peter Petrelli. Peter flew out of the way as an Irken fighter sped past him, firing all its lasers at a Sephiroth who had just impaled Boba Fett. The Sephiroth removed his sword from the Mandalorian corpse, and swung it from side to side deflecting the lasers. As the Irken ship flew past him, he sliced off one of its wings, sending it into a downward spiral. However before the Sephiroth could even smile at his victory, he was torn in two by the wing of the high velocity shockwave of an exploding Protoss Carrier. Shards of the carrier fell to the ground, impaling heroes and Sephiroths alike, and then crushed them as its massive burning hull crashed down from the sky. All over; the white ground was quickly becoming either blood-stained or charred as the explosive battle raged on. Flames engulfed more Sephiroths as a raging inferno erupted from the palms of Mario, Luigi, Azula, and Gandalf. The air rippled with the heat of their power. As those Sephiroths stood burning, others were singed from the inside out as lightsabers of every color sliced through their bodies, and still others were pummeled with the super-human strength of an army of Smiths. Some were nullified by powerful energy beams shot from the wrists of the Autobots and the hands of the Saiyans. Some were incinerated with the power beams of the Silver Surfer and his master. Some were eaten by a large beanbag filled with insects that liked to sing. Some were crushed under the weight of more falling wreckage. Some were just really confused because they were fighting a drunken pirate who used a rum flask as a weapon. And a select few were sliced to pieces by a massive sword which everyone in every universe now recognized. Cloud turned and removed another Sephiroth's head with a swing of his mighty weapon. It had seemed that he'd been fighting this battle for hours, when he knew it had only been just a few minutes. Through the vast crowds of clashing soldiers, and through the plumes of smoke, he could still see the original Sephiroth, hovering above the battle like some silent god.

"This has to end" he said to himself, spinning his sword over his head and bringing it down behind him killing another Sephiroth.

"Maybe we can help" a familiar voice rang out over the sounds of carnage.

Superman lowed from the sky, followed by another familiar face.

"Sora!" Cloud yelled, trying to hold off another Sephiroth, who was suddenly incinerated by a blast of heat-vision.

"I understand your not the only one who can travel to other worlds Cloud." Superman said looking at Sora. "I'll hold them off while you tell Cloud our plan!

"Okay Cloud listen up" Sora said summoning his Keyblade. "because we're only going to get one shot at this."

Sephiroth gazed down upon the battle from his lofty perch, picking out the players by name. Suddenly a loud piercing sound echoed across the fray, and with the speed of lighting and a flash, everyone except Sephiroth's puppets was teleported out of the battle and back behind where Cloud and his party had first appeared. In perfect timing with the teleportation, the massive space station in the sky known as the Deathstar fired its primary weapon. A massive green glow covered everything as the massive beam of destruction hurtled toward the Sephiroth army, who were too dazed and confused to grasp the whole situation. In an instant they were all disintegrated into nothing, and the force of the blast created a gigantic cloud of dust and smoke which blocked the original Sephiroth's view of Cloud's army. However the fog wasn't there long. Not ten seconds later Aang burst through the wall smog, dissipating it completely. Behind him followed the all armies, and armadas ever assembled on any world. As one they fired their projectile weapons at the godlike Sephiroth, all of them having no effect. Suddenly over the blare of the explosions a mighty roar was heard by all, especially Sephiroth. He peered with his all seeing eyes and saw that the roar had come from the Lion Aslan, who was gazing directly into Sephiroth's eyes. All this was just enough of a distraction for Sephiroth not to notice the key shaped portal that appeared by his right hand! As every being in existence fired upon their oppressor, Sora and Cloud burst forth from their portal! Sora took Cloud's hand and threw him at Sephiroth's hand with some extra force. In mid-air Cloud discarded his sword and stretched out his right hand for Sephiroth's. And in one horrifying moment, Sephiroth comprehended what was happening, but it was too late for him. Cloud and Sephiroth's hands touched, creating a time space anomaly which ruptured the fabric of all reality! The two ego gems seemed to merge and fade and merge again, all at once. In one blinding light all dimensions stopped existing.

It was the end of all things.


	17. Home Again

Cloud's eyes slowly opened as he heard familiar voices.

"Cloud! Cloud are you okay! We've been so worried!"

As he fully came into consciousness he realized who was speaking.

"Tifa!?" Cloud gasped excitedly

"Cloud!" Tifa exclaimed throwing herself on him with a big hug. "Your okay!"

Cloud looked around and saw all of his old friends standing around him. Tifa, Barret, Yuffie, Vincent, Cid, Red, and Cait Sith were all looking at him. He looked up and noticed there was a blue sky, he looked down and realized he was on dirt.

"Wh-what happened? Where are we?" Cloud asked slowly getting up.

"We saw Sephiroth in the sky!" Exclaimed Yuffie "Except he looked a whole lot scarier! And then there was some blinding light, and we went to the source, and you were just lying here on the ground!"

"Really?" Cloud said rubbing his head.

"Yeah, and some really weird guys were all over you seeing if were okay."

"Weird guys?"

"Yeah man!" Barret Chimed in. "Dude, there was some guy in green armor, and a knight looking guy, and some pirates, and this dude in a trench coat, and some big freakin lion, and a kid with a key, and two dudes with there underwear on the outside!"

"Okay, okay I get it! Did you see where they went?"

"Yes." Said Tifa "When we drove up, the Lion motioned his head for them to leave or something, and they all just faded away!"

"And Sephiroth?"

"We haven't seen him since that giant flash of light."

"What happened?!" Yuffie yelled jumping up and down Did you guys fight! What's going on!?"

"It's a long story" Cloud said almost in a whisper, as he tilted his head to the sky.

"But right now.." he said closing his eyes "I'm just glad to be home."

--

Sephiroth lay cold. On the ground. In the rain. Pitch darkness was everywhere. He was broken, defeated, powerless and alone.

"How could this have happened!?" He asked himself slowly getting to his feet, the rain washing over him.

"I had the power!" He yelled "I WAS A GOD!!!!!"

"So you were." A voice rang out from the cold. "And yet you failed."

"Wh-whos there?" Sephiroth said reaching for his sword only to find that it was gone.

"You know, I tried the whole all powerful thing myself. Didn't work out for me either. Just doesn't seem right does it. The ones without the power can vanquish those with it. Fair is foul and foul is fair after all."

"W-what do you want!" Sephiroth yelled into the darkness "Who are you!"

"Why Sephiroth" The voice chuckled "I'm the one who sent you on this journey. Think of it as a sort of test. A taste of what's to come"

"Wh-what!?"

"Now." Said the stranger, walking closer, yet still covered in shadow.

"Let's move on to the main event."

Duel of the Fates Barrier Break

The End

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Thanks to everyone whose supported this fan fiction from the beginning! Much love!

READ THE SEQUEL HERE:

.net/s/4220998/1/Duel_of_the_Fates_Host_War

Peace- Evan David

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Characters in this story, and do not claim any rights to them. However the actual sequence of events that take place in the story, I do own. Don't steal please.


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